The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the nature and potential of an integrated strategy for non-formal education and development that will alleviate the problem of milieu-deprivation in Third World communities. This integrated strategy includes compensatory education, community development, and development communication strategies. Learning need structures were investigated and the most important categories of learning needs that exist in socially disadvantaged communities were identified. Community education is a relatively new concept, through which innovation, adaptation and extension of educational opportunities can be achieved, and thus suggests the most suitable infrastructure for the integration of educational and developmental strategies, namely compensatory education, community development and development communication. Community education can be defined as the educational process in which the provisions (services, programmes, resources) of all the educational agencies in a community are utilised in a co-operative and co-ordinated manner, to provide for all of the learning needs of all the people of a community, to develop the community and solve the problems of the community. The milieu-deprived Third World communities of the world are thus depend en t on community education. I n the present practice of community education, the community school serves as community learning centre, and becomes the focal point of the community whereby the school functions as a centre and delivery system for lifelong learning and community development. The operation of educational programmes is realized through a ten phase process. The appointment of a Director of Education, creating an educational milieu and the establishment of an organizational structure for participative planning, establish the necessary infrastructure for community education. The planning and bringing into operation of educational programmes takes place in the next six phases, namely: identification and analysis of problems and needs, formulation of programme objectives, identification and mobilization of community resources, operation of educational programmes, evaluation, and continuous research. The community education process can be implemented for the integration of all the programmes, practices, projects, and learning experiences of compensatory education, community development and development communicaton. The following categories of compensatory education can be realized in a community education set-up:<ul> <li> pre-school educational programmes and parent education</li><li> work-study programmes for youths</li><li> higher education and adult education</li><li> counselling</li><li> reading and language education</li><li> extracurricular innovations</li></ul> In dealing with community education, one is dealing with a community development strategy: a comprehensive community development strategy is actualised through some variation of the co-ordinating, co-operating process of community education. The following development communication strategies can be implemented and realised in a community education set-up: the open broadcasting strategy, the organised group strategy, multimedia strategy. Through the integration of the above-mentioned strategies within a community education set-up, with its network of educational agencies and social services, the problems of mi1ieu-deprived communities can be alleviated to a meaningful extent. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / PhD / Unrestricted

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The aim of this thesis is to create a tool for formal verification of systems specified using textual use- cases. The tool should allow for automated verification of temporal invariants specified in temporal logic (CTL and LTL formulae). The textual specification is transformed to a formal model that is verified using the NuSMV symbolic model-checker. Potential errors are shown to the user in the form of an HTML report. Using this feedback, the user is able to iteratively develop valid textual use-case specifications. The tool's architecture should be focused on reusability of its components and extensibility. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Bibliography: pages 105-107. / Educational projects offering an alternative to the traditional, formal system are increasing in number. Many hold ideals of participative learning and the development of personal autonomy but are also committed to a particular political vision. The interest of this case-study lies in the consideration of how such educational values may interact with a call to support and act upon a set of beliefs. This tension between open-ended educational work and directed action is a central problem in Paulo Freire's pedagogy. Freire talks of consciousness-raising as the process by which people become aware of the political implications of their personal situations. He advocates experience-based learning but also has an analysis of society which 'conscious' people are to realize. Conscientization, in these terms, is caught between a desire to have people take responsibility for their own learning and to teach a specific view of society. The learning process thus comes into conflict with the curriculum content with priority necessarily being given to one over the other. Freireian concepts such as dialogue, praxis and transformation are central to many alternative educational projects although they are frequently ill-defined, containing contradictions and creating confusion. This may be reflected in their organizational structures as well as in their outreach work. This study considers the relationships between learning and action, individuality and unity and equality and expertise so as to articulate the difficulties faced by the project under discussion. The aim of this study is not to provide a set of solutions for the project to adopt but rather to define areas of concern so that the project itself is better able to determine its own direction. The means by which these areas are uncovered and shared with interested parties is therefore of central importance. Thus the limits and possibilities of participant-observation as an evaluative approach are explored with particular interest in the setting up of the contract, the definition of the problem and the communication of the insights gained back to the project stakeholders. The project selected for this case-study is 'End Racism and Sexism through Education' (E.R.A.S.E.), a small, Cape Town based initiative.

Two and a half billion of the world’s working adults are excluded from financial services. The exclusion of people from the formal financial sector has led to the growth of microfinance globally. The importance of financial inclusion is represented through the Sustainable Development Goals in which financial inclusion is an enabler in seven of the 17 goals. In South Africa, stokvels are one of the most important microfinance phenomena, as 11.5-million people are part of a stokvel. The formal financial sector in South Africa has started to target stokvel members through various stokvel accounts and products. Previous literature on stokvels focuses on the demography of stokvels; the features of stokvels; and the history of stokvels. Previous studies have found that the formal sector does not understand stokvel clientele. However, the review of the literature indicates that there is an insufficient analysis of the needs of stokvel members and the how the formal sector can better accommodate their needs. Therefore, this study will explore why South Africans continue to use stokvels and what barriers prevent stokvel members from participating in the formal financial sector. Recommendations will be made to various stakeholder based on the themes identified. This study found that the stokvel members perceived there to be information asymmetry, which they believe is then exploited by the banks. As a result, there is distrust in the formal financial system. Moreover, this study also found that the social interactions in stokvels are changing due to technology. The findings and recommendations in this study can be used by banks and other formal financial institutions to improve the suitability of their product and services. Consequently, financial inclusion will improve as the products and services provided by the formal sector will be better suited to the needs of stokvel members. This study will also provide insights for the South African government, community leaders and The National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA).

Code obfuscation is a software security technique where transformations are applied to source and/or machine code to make them more difficult to analyze and understand to deter reverse-engineering and tampering. However, in many commercial tools, such as Irdeto's Cloakware product, it is not clear why the end user should believe that the programs that come out the other end are still the same program"! In this thesis, we apply techniques of formal specification and verification, by using the Coq Proof Assistant and IMP (a simple imperative language within it), to formulate what it means for a program's semantics to be preserved by an obfuscating transformation, and give formal machine-checked proofs that these properties hold. We describe our work on opaque predicate and control flow flattening transformations. Along the way, we also employ Hoare logic as an alternative to state equivalence, as well as augment the IMP program with Switch statements. We also define a lower-level flowchart language to wrap around IMP for modelling certain flattening transformations, treating blocks of codes as objects in their own right. We then discuss related work in the literature on formal verification of data obfuscation and layout obfuscation transformations in IMP, and conclude by discussing CompCert, a formally verified C compiler in Coq, along with work that has been done on obfuscation there, and muse on the possibility of implementing formal methods in the next generation of real-world obfuscation tools.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a debilitating symptom of psychosis. It is linked to functional deficits and generally demonstrates poor response to interventions. Metacognition has emerged as a potential therapeutic target that may be effective in reducing FTD, as metacognitive deficits and FTD both arise from disruptions in associative thought processes. This study’s primary aim was to determine whether FTD could be reduced with metacognitive therapy. Pre-post changes in FTD severity were assessed using clinician-rated and automated measures in 20 individuals with psychotic disorders who received 12 sessions of evidence-based metacognitive therapy. We also examined whether reductions in FTD were larger when assessed with automated instruments versus clinician-rated measures. Aim two compared associations between FTD and three outcome variables (social functioning, role functioning, metacognition) across FTD-measurement approach. Results indicated that automated FTD, but not clinician-rated FTD, was significantly reduced post-intervention. This effect was more robust within a subsample exhibiting greater levels of FTD. Strength of associations between FTD and outcome variables did not differ across FTD measurement approach. These findings provide initial evidence that a targeted metacognitive intervention can reduce FTD. Effects were strongest for automated instruments, which may be more sensitive to detecting change; however, differences in measurement type did not extend to associations with selected outcome variables. This study provides preliminary support for future efforts to reduce FTD. Large-scale studies with longer intervention periods may further our understanding of the effectiveness of metacognitive intervention on FTD.

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